“Fifteen Years Ago”
Conway Twitty
Written by Raymond Smith
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
November 21, 1970
I suppose it’s not too strange to levy the exact same criticism on two records that are otherwise exemplary.
But it is very strange that they arrived consecutively!
“Fifteen Years Ago” is just like the the Charley Pride hit that precedes it. It’s spectacularly sung, with Twitty giving a tour de force vocal performance with some real twang to boot.
The lyric is brilliantly constructed, with a real heartbreak hook to it. A man running into the new lover of a fifteen year old flame and having to pretend that he’s still not thinking about her? As Bruce Robison later wrote, “Now that was a heartache.”
The only issue is the dated production, which Twitty navigates nimbly, but it still undermines an otherwise perfect country record.
“Fifteen Years Ago” gets a B+.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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I love this song and yes, a “B+” is the appropriate grade for a very good song that you love. A’s should be reserved for exceptional in my opinion. Not much else to say but as usual Conway makes you feel every word.
It feels like Conway never gets the love he deserves. He had 40 #1 hits, but almost all of them are totally new to me.
My experience is that, except for a select list of hits that have had cultural staying power, even retro country stations aren’t inclined to play much from before the dawn of the Outlaw era circa 1975. Most people who listen to the oldies country stations I listen to in the Midwest could probably follo along with the “#1 singles of the 80s” feature and knew more songs than not, but the “#1 singles of the 70s” feature is a different story where the majority of the songs are outside my orbit of familiarity. I have a couple of theories as to why this might be the case but rather than making a fool out of myself peddling them, I’d prefer to hear from somebody in the business on why they think even oldies country stations generally stick to the 80s, 90s, and second half of the 70s.
Odd choice indeed to drown Conway out with an Oak Ridge Boys treatment on the chorus. It’s my first time hearing this but it gives me a vibe similar to Randy Travis’s “1982” much more than the similarly named pop-gloss Kenny Rogers hit “Twenty Years Ago”. The lack of recurring airplay for either of them can probably be explained by dated production and the irony that said production dates both songs back much farther than 15 or 20 years ago, respectively.
I always felt that this was a rather maudlin song sung supremely well by a very talented artist. The production does not especially bother me, perhaps because so many of the recordings from the 1970s shared similar production flaws. I would much rather hear 70s production than modern country with its too loud guitar solos and excessive rhythm sections. The B+ seems appropriate – better lyrics would make it worth an A, 70s production notwithstanding.
…too much of everything in this one: too much sentimentality, too much steel, too much conway (making up for a whole string section by himself)… – it’s like country heaven raining down on you with a little piece of hell. just love it.